Valium

What Is Valium?

Valium is made to soothe electrical impulses deep inside the brain. That action can be vital for people dealing with anxiety, as the medication can keep a spark of fear from turning into a fire of panic.
But, as the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency points out, young people often choose to abuse benzodiazepines like Valium. That’s because the soothing effect these drugs can bring is akin to the soothing impact alcohol can deliver. But there’s no scent and no hardware involved with Valium abuse. Teens can just crush pills, swallow the powder, and get high without alerting anyone.
Teens who abuse Valium need help, and they need to get that help from experts. Valium may seem benign, but the drug can change impulses inside the brain, and once those changes are in place, it may be difficult for teens to overcome their urge to abuse without the help of a targeted program.

How Valium Works

Each molecule of Valium triggers a cascade of electrical reactions within the cells of the brain. At the end of that process, amended cells pump out huge amounts of chemicals associated with pleasure, leaving teens feeling sated and secure.
But those amended cells are damaged and faulty, after years of Valium exposure, and that can make teens behave in ways they’d just never consider without the help of drugs.
For example, teens with Valium addictions may become so obsessed with obtaining the drug that they might:

Steal it from family members

Buy it from friends

Visit doctors with imaginary ailments that can only be healed with Valium

Work with dealers to get Valium

Steal money in order to buy Valium

The drug can also change a teen’s behavior in dramatic ways. A vivacious and energetic teen with a great deal of enthusiasm for life can become a shy, exhausted, withdrawn person who has no interest in doing anything that doesn’t involve taking drugs. A study highlighted by Health Day suggests that benzodiazepines like Valium can also push people in a homicidal direction, allowing them to attack others on a mass scale. That’s not something a teen might ever consider without the use of drugs, but it could come about with Valium.

While families might notice these changes in teen behavior, the person taking drugs may also be able to see or feel the shift. But that person may find it hard to do something different with life, even if that person desperately wants to change.
Brain cells altered by Valium may call out for the drug, despite its drawbacks. Teens who try to quit may experience all sorts of terrible side effects during an attempt to quit, including tremors, unusual thoughts, and cravings. Teens may emerge from that experience so shaken and upset that they go right back to drugs. They may feel as though they have no choice in the matter.

Recovery Basics

While teens may not be able to recover from Valium alone, they can certainly do so with the help of a treatment program. It starts with detox.
At Next Generation Village, teens work with a team on a slow transition to sobriety. Each day, they take a smaller amount of drugs until they’re no longer taking anything at all. Other medications are used to soothe any symptoms that may appear during the transition.
Then, counseling and therapy programs help to boost vital skills, so teens can keep from abusing Valium in the future. Often, these programs involve cognitive behavioral therapy. Here, teens learn to examine the link between thoughts and behaviors. Rather than listening to internal monologue as a murmur of commands that must be obeyed, teens understand that they can change the way they think, and that they can make good choices when it comes to drugs.

Programs like this, that combine withdrawal with ongoing support, can achieve a 70-80 percent success rate, per an analysis in Current Opinion in Psychiatry. That means the majority of teens who get comprehensive care from a structured program can leave their drugs behind for good, and move into adulthood without carrying the specter of drugs with them.
But teens won’t get better unless their parents help them to enroll in the programs they need. That’s where Next Generation Village comes in.
This facility is designed to assist teens with addictions to drugs like Valium, and it can also assist teens with mental illnesses that complicate a Valium addiction. This co-occurring focus allows program administrators to assist with both problems, at the same time, delivering real help to teens in need.
The entire facility caters to the needs of teens in transition. Recreation opportunities are plentiful, food is delicious, and connectivity is easy. Everything a teen might need in order to stay engaged in care is provided, and it’s all right there at Next Generation Village.